


One Word From You

by Queerwbluehair



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Romance, choni
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:39:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14287107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queerwbluehair/pseuds/Queerwbluehair
Summary: From Cheryl's escape onwards, filling in the blanks of the romance between Cheryl and Toni. Following the blossoming relationship (pun intended) of the two.





	1. In the Heart’s and Mind’s of Girls

Cheryl’s mind had been swarming in the three days she had spent in the care of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. First, there had been the fear she experienced when she was trapped with her mother in the car, sure that her mother was taking her somewhere to shoot her and then dump her body where it could never be found. This situation hadn’t come as a surprise after what happened to her dear Jason. But when the car rolled into the Sisters of Quiet Mercy, a greater, a more chilling fear had set in. Mother was no longer her greatest concern, she had heard what happened when ‘deviants’ such as her went through gay conversion therapy. This despair mixed with pure rage from Cheryl’s betrayal at the hands of Penelope Blossom. Murder was one thing, especially considering Blossom family history, but this was unimaginable cruelty. Her mother surely knew the psychological impacts of such treatments as well as Cheryl herself did. In that moment she knew exactly what her mother thought, a shell of a daughter was better than a bisexual daughter. This must have been the same thought that went through her Daddy’s mind when he had executed Jason, a runaway drug dealing son was much worse than a dead son.

Later, once she had been taken to her dingy room - with pale coloured walls, an old narrow bed, and inexplicably padded walls - all she could do was hold her heads in her hands and cry. The nuns had taken forced her to remove her signature red lipstick upon arrival. There was nothing to worry about smudging, so Cheryl cried freely. She thought about her beloved River Vixens, Josie, Veronica, Betty, and Nana Rose. But the face that kept coming to the forefront of her mind was that of Toni Topaz. Her beautiful figure, her warm, brown eyes and her smile that was both kind and mesmerizing. 

Through her he tears she remembered clearly the way Toni had said to her “You’re sensational”. All Cheryl wanted to do was make Toni hers at that moment. If she could she would kiss her, and envelop her in a warm embrace. Cheryl vowed that if she was ever able to see Toni again, she would be sure to act on these tantalizing fantasies. 

After her first night everything had settled into a predictable routine. She hardly paid any attention to what the nuns said about her ‘deviance’. Cheryl was seventeen years old, she knew enough to know that this wouldn’t remove her attraction to woman, it could only turn her into a broken woman who liked girls. And so Cheryl’s intense emotions had faded into numbness. She ate, she prayed, she watched strange movies about the dangers of Satan’s temptation and she tried not to think about the revenge she would get when she was finally free of the place.

When they sent her down to the basement to do “physical therapy” her anger began to bubble up to the surface again. As though forcing young people to do pointless labour would do anything for their sexuality or their wellbeing. It was cruel, sadistic torture. These supposed women of god probably got off on the power trip of yelling at and forcing vulnerable children to do their bidding.

The worst part of the work was that Cheryl couldn’t help but to imagine the basement that Dear Jason had met his end in. Every time she turned to grab another sandbag to grab across the floor she was sure she would turn and see Jason alive and bound, or dead from a gunshot wound through his skull. 

The frustration and the reminder of her sweet brother had combined so violently in her mind it made her feel like she was sliding out of her body. She watched herself finish the gruelling work from a omnipresence vantage point. She didn’t know why but she couldn’t stay in the room where the spirit of her brother persisted and her own spirit struggled against the oppressive force of the nuns. 

When she finally finished and returned to her room to clean up she could tell from her shaking hands that it was only a matter of time before she would collapse, or use her hands to take her freedom back directly from the nuns…

To Cheryl’s increasing dismay, they would be watching another antiquated movie about the danger of boy-on-boy love. She tried to take the moment to leave the room, to think only of her beloved Toni. How they would lay in her bed at Thistle house and stroke each other’s soft skin. They would hold hands and never break eye contact. Maybe eventually their hands would move under the covers to stroke other soft parts of their bodies. 

Suddenly Cheryl’s deeply private daydream was interrupted by the sound of someone calling her voice in the real world. Cheryl opened her tear stained eyes to see Toni standing in front of the pews.  
“Cheryl!” She called, clearly trying to look for her in the dark room.

Cheryl immediately wiped her tears and stood up to answer her call. Toni.

“We came to rescue you!” exclaimed Toni. 

“You did?” All of the relief and safety she had been unable to experience for the past three days rushed back to her quickly. Her love, the nicest, most wonderful girl in the world stood in front of her, her saviour. 

Toni wrapped her into exactly the type of warm embrace Cheryl had been imagining for days. 

And then for a moment they stood apart looking deeply into each others eyes. They both new what was at stake in that moment, Cheryl had to get out quickly or risk never leaving the Sisters for the rest of her adolescent life. But in that moment she also remembered the promise she had made to herself three days earlier. What she would do if she ever saw Toni Topaz again…

At the time it seemed Toni was having similar thoughts, as it dawned on Cheryl that they were both gently leaning towards the lips of one another. It was as if magnets were pulling them together, forces beyond their control were making it so the consummation of their longing had to be achieved at that very second.  
Toni’s lips were as soft and warm, just as Cheryl had imagined them to be. The kiss was deep and communicated all of the longing that the girls had clearly been feeling for each other over the past weeks. Unfortunately, it was brief. Almost as soon as it begun, Veronica burst into the room to inform them of the army of nuns opposed to her escape.

All throughout the arguably, most important aspect of the escape mission, Cheryl felt as though she was floating through a new world. A world where Toni would hold her hand in the hall, and show her mother the importance of their love. A world filled with flowers that she could pluck from a garden and give to her lover. A world that would be full of decadent picnics and walks along the snow covered streets of Riverdale.

Upon exiting the tunnel underneath The Sisters of Quiet Mercy, Cheryl was finally able to land her feet back on solid ground. The significance of the last thirty minutes finally dawned on her, her friends had rescued her from a horror show of an asylum and she had shared a kiss with Toni Topaz, the most exceptional girl in Riverdale. 

And the best part was, when she looked up at Toni for the first time since the escape, she saw in her eyes that there would be many more passionate kisses to share at a later time.


	2. A Midnight Tryst

Toni Topaz was no stranger to dangerous, and often illegal activity. She was a goddamn Southside Serpent after all. Toni had joined the notorious Southside gang at fourteen, after a childhood of watching her neighbourhood ignored by the powers that be. She had learned quickly that sometimes in order to protect the people you love, you had to do things yourself.

When she had been forcefully enrolled at Riverdale High, Toni had been surprised to find that many of her new North side acquaintances were also well-versed in vigilante justice. While it didn’t shock her to find that Veronica Lodge, the daughter of famed Mafioso Hiram Lodge, was willing to do her own dirty work, it had been a pleasant surprise that Kevin Keller, the Sherriff’s son, had willingly come along to bust Cheryl out of Catholic jail. 

Despite the willingness of her new friends to free Cheryl, Toni found herself taking extra precaution to make sure that they were all safe. She knew it was silly of her, but she found herself wanting to protect her new allies. She hadn’t expected Kevin to help her secure the door to the tunnel they had just escaped from, but she had felt her heart soar when she turned to realize that Cheryl had paused with her hand outstretched to pull Toni away from the angry nuns.

Over the last month, Toni had come to see Cheryl as truly exceptional. Before formally meeting the other girl, Toni hadn’t thought much of her outside of the context of her brother’s disappearance and murder. She may have known of the tragic and beautiful heir to the Blossom maple syrup and drug empire, but Toni hadn’t ever given Cheryl much thought. Over time however, Toni had come to realize the strength and resilience that the redhead possessed. 

From her constant biting remarks, the way the ruled the River Vixens with an iron fist, and the grace with which she navigated the death of her brother and father, a rape attempt, and an increasingly abusive mother; Toni couldn’t deny that she was impressed by Cheryl. Maybe it came from spending the majority of her adolescence running with the Serpents, Cheryl’s take-no-prisoners attitude was something that Toni couldn’t help but be attracted to. 

At that moment Toni realized she was getting lost in her thoughts. The group had stopped abruptly in order to catch their breath a safe distance from the convent. Cheryl panted, leaning against a tree, but she gave no sign that she wanted to release Toni’s hand.

“Where to next?” asked Veronica, clearly out of breath but full of adrenaline from the night’s events. 

Toni looked at Cheryl, who was gazing at her with admiration. Toni had to admit to herself that it made her feel great to take care of the enigmatic Blossom girl.

“Cheryl come stay with me tonight” Toni pleaded gently “you can figure out what to do about your family tomorrow when they know you managed to escape”

Toni could feel Veronica and Kevin exchange a smirk, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from Cheryl, whose eyes were filled with tears. The slender redhead excepted her offer with a nod of her head.

_

Back at her grandpa’s trailer, Toni put a finger to her lips to indicate the importance of silence to Cheryl. She quietly pulled Cheryl through the sliding glass door, into the kitchen Toni shared with her Grandfather. Her grandfather had always been a heavy sleeper, after all one couldn’t spend a lifetime in Sunnyside Trailer Park without developing the ability to sleep through the constant parties and antics of the younger serpents, but she still didn’t want to have to explain her new friend to her grandfather at midnight.

She quietly lead Cheryl down the hall to her bedroom, gesturing to the bathroom on the way. When she flicked on her bedroom light a moment of embarrassment flooded over Toni. Her room was well lived in, nothing like Cheryl gothic heiress bedroom. On her wood panelled wall, Toni had hung Malcom X and Hayley Kioyoko posters. Her bedspread was covered by an macramé blanket that her aunt had probably made in the 80s. Her desk was filled with a variety of half-full coffee mugs and her bookshelf was filled with dusty true crime paperbacks including Robert Graysmith’s Zodiac and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. While Toni usually felt proud of her eclectic bedroom, in the presence of Cheryl she momentarily felt shabby. 

However, her nervousness was put to rest when she saw the way Cheryl took in her bedroom with an air of wonder and curiosity. 

She relaxed immediately onto Toni’s bed and purred “so this is where the great Toni Topaz comes to unwind”

Toni couldn’t help but feeling her heart miss a beat at the way Cheryl looked at home on her double bed. Instead of following her impulse to join her immediately, Toni turned and found a serpent tee-shirt and pyjama pants for Cheryl to change into. 

“I know its not your usual style, but it will be a nice change from the convent uniform you’re wearing now,” Cheryl accepted gratefully and the two awkwardly tried to figure out where they should look while they changed into their pyjamas.

While she through on her own shorts and worn in sweater, Toni still managed to catch a glimpse of Cheryl’s smooth bare legs and stomach.

Toni shut off the light and the two crawled under the covers. Without hesitation Cheryl found Toni’s hand under the covers and turned so that their faces were close together.

“I want to thank you for coming to rescue me tonight TeeTee, I’ll forever be indebted to you” Toni could feel Cheryl’s breath on her lips. 

“Cheryl, you deserve to have people in your life who will come to your aid, you don’t owe me anything” Toni gently brushed a loose hair off of Cheryl’s forehead.

The caress proved too much for Cheryl who exhaled softly and moved her lips towards Toni’s.

And they were kissing again. It was like falling, falling, falling through Cheryl. The heat from their lips mingled together as they grabbed at each other with more passion than they ever could have in front of a room of others. 

Toni worked her hand under Cheryl’s tee shirt to rub the small of her back as Cheryl moved onto Toni’s lap without stopping the heady and passionate kissing. Toni had rarely felt such an attraction for with anyone she had been with before. She was sure that she was going to explode with desire for Cheryl Blossom. Her hands slide up the sides of Cheryl small waist, trying to take in as much as she could, hungry with the need to explore all of Cheryl.

Without warning Cheryl released Toni and removed her shirt in one swift motion. Toni was momentarily stunned by the beauty of Cheryl’s naked form illuminated by the moonlight. her skin glowed ethereally and Toni made a move to reach out to pull her back into the embrace, overcome completely with desire.

But just as suddenly, she noticed that there were tears streaming down Cheryl’s porcelain cheeks.

“Cheryl, Cheryl what’s wrong?” Toni asked breathlessly, snapping out of the lust she had been feeling a moment before.

“Oh Tee, I really want this with you,” Cheryl buried her face in her hands “I’m so sorry”

Toni wrapped Cheryl into her arms, in a comforting rather than erotic way now.

“You never have to be sorry for being upset, you’ve just escaped a terrible situation and we have plenty of time” Toni hoped her words were at least somewhat soothing.

Cheryl rested her head on Toni shoulder in a gesture of thanks and Toni let her friend cry into her pink hair.

After Cheryl had caught her breath, Toni helped the redhead back into her shirt and made her get back under the sheets. She curled around Cheryl, hoping that spooning would do more than make Toni feel like she was protecting Cheryl.

As she felt the other girl’s breath slow down she whispered gently “I’ll take care of you Cheryl, I won’t let anyone else hurt you.”


	3. Unearthly Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl's thoughts on the night after the escape from Sisters of Quiet Mercy.

Cheryl was momentarily confused when she awoke to sun streaming into her eyes. She usually drew the curtains in her own bedroom, and besides that, Thistle House tended to remain in the shadow of dark clouds no matter the weather.

            She raised her hands to her eyes and tried to recall how she had ended up in such a well lit room. The memory of being rescued from the convent flooded back suddenly.

            Kissing Toni. She wanted to stay forever in that memory. She could distinctly remember what it felt like to have Toni’s soft lips on hers. The two of them completely intermingled.

            More came back to her then. The memory of kissing in Toni’s bed the night before. The way they had hungered against each other. Cheryl had wanted Toni to absorb her in that moment, take her sorrow and happiness and have it completely.

            She had exposed herself to Toni in more ways than one. She had never gotten naked for another person before, not in order to show herself to them anyway. She may have been naked in the presence of others, but she had saved her complete vulnerability for Toni. She didn’t exactly regret this decision, but she couldn’t help the way the heat rose to her cheeks. She attempted to suppress the groan that came from deep within her.

            “Good morning sleepyhead”

            Suddenly, Cheryl became aware of a weight beside her under the covers. She turned and found Toni was there, smiling at her in the sly way she always did.

            “Good morning TeeTee” Cheryl replied, trying to compose herself.

            Cheryl wondered if composure was even possible in the presence of Toni Topaz. It seemed to Cheryl that Toni could sense her vulnerability no matter how much clothing she was wearing. Cheryl wasn’t yet sure if she should be allowing herself to be exposed, or if she needed to quickly fortify herself.

            Toni was smiling in such a way that Cheryl abandoned her dilemma and turned over to face her. She hoped her bright smile made Toni feel the same sense of nausea that Cheryl felt seeing Toni’s happy face.

            She reached out and softly caressed Toni’s elbow, despite her nervousness Cheryl couldn’t help being hypnotized by the soft skin of her beloved. She wanted to run her hands all over her, memorize her completely.

            “What should we do today?” Toni asked “I thought it might be fun to play hooky and head over to Greendale”

            Despite her best efforts, Cheryl’s mind flashed to the image of her brother across from her in a canoe. He was telling her about his plans once he got to Greendale. She pushed the thought out of her mind to focus on Toni.

            “But TeeTee,” she smiled and moved to touch Toni’s shoulder over her Serpent’s tee-shirt “what kind of influence would I be if I got you to cut class”

            Toni laughed heartily at that and Cheryl felt her heart swell for her amore.

            “If anyone’s a bad influence, it’s the girl in the gang” she responded, slowly lifting a hand to Cheryl’s cheek.

          ‘I’m sorry mon Cheri” Cheryl sighed “I’ve already missed two days of school this week”

            Toni’s eyes brightened as she leaned towards Cheryl, “Who would have thought that you were such a goody-two-shoes?”

            Normally Cheryl tried her best to hide her good grades and commitment to education from her peers, as she was careful to never spoil the perfect persona she had crafted. But she let Toni chide her gently, she couldn’t help but be herself in front of her.

            “I’ll meet you at school after homeroom” Cheryl said “I’ve got one thing I have to do first”  
            And with that she closed the distance between them, kissing Toni with a gentle passion that could only accompany early morning kisses.

-

Cheryl opened the front door to Thistle House and immediately she felt a dark sense of calm come over her. Cheryl had grown up under the roof of her parent’s gothic proclivities and she couldn’t help but feel at home in the presence of a candelabra. 

            When Cheryl was twelve, her teacher, Ms. Welland, had suggested Cheryl read Jane Eyre, thinking that it would be an interesting look at the life of a girl from another world. However, she had immediately felt at home in the world of Thornfield Hall. She imagined herself as Jane, walking the halls in terror and seeing faces in the windows when she stretched her legs in the garden.

            As Cheryl had gotten older, however, she had begun to suspect that she was the mad women in the attic.

            Cheryl braced herself for some kind of attack in the front hall of her mother’s home. She knew that with all of the commotion her escape had made last night, it was unlikely that Penelope Blossom was still in the dark.

            Fortunately, Cheryl couldn’t make out the sounds of anyone in the house. She let out a sigh of relief and made a beeline for her bedroom on the second floor.

            Cheryl knew that she couldn’t show up to school in her current state without fueling rumors about her absence from Riverdale High. She opened her closet doors to make sure mother hadn’t dismantled her wardrobe while she had been away. Cheryl had spent a large portion of her life (and her family’s fortune) since puberty cultivating her fashion, and the idea of her mother pawing through her collection of designer and vintage items made Cheryl feel sick.

            In her own mind, Cheryl fantasized that once she had died her wardrobe would be displayed in museums around the world. Somewhere between Morticia Addams and Freida Kahlo, Cheryl knew that millions of people would pay good money one day to marvel at her exquisite taste in clothing.

            She pushed the fantasy of herself as a prolific artist and cultural figure from her mind. She had to find the perfect outfit for today before she focused her mind on world domination.

            Flicking through the rack of garments, she settled on a red velvet crop top. As much as she wanted to maintain her image as a Riverdale sophisticate, she couldn’t help but imagine the way Toni’s eyes might trail to her navel.

            Yes, she decided in front of the mirror, this shirt will work perfectly with her signature tight, black skirt. She dressed quickly, doing her makeup in her ensuite bathroom and adding Valentino pumps and a choker.

            She checked the grand father clock in the hall to make sure she would make it to school in time for her first period class. Unfortunately, when she turned around to head down the stairs she found herself face-to-face with her Uncle Claudius.

            “Hello Cheryl,” he said with a sickening smile “what a surprise to find you home

            It was difficult for Cheryl to separate her father from Uncle Claudius, his identical twin. Nonetheless, the effect was the same. Before her stood a man who had plotted her ruin.  
            “Uncle Claudius” Cheryl steeled herself with an equally as vicious smile “I should hope you’ll report my return to Mother,”

            “I trust you’ve both been worried about me since I… disappeared”

            She didn’t wait to hear his reply. Cheryl’s Mother and Uncle might be trying to do away with her, but she knew that her manipulation abilities rivalled that of Penelope Blossoms one-to-one. After all, she had learned from the best.

            Despite her dysfunctional, possibly murderous, family problems, Cheryl thought of only one thing as she marched down the drive of Thistle House. Toni.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Em who edited this for my drunk self! Forever appreciative of your sober and keen eyes.
> 
> Just a short chapter to bring us to the final scene of the last episode!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've ever written, I'd appreciate any feedback and criticism :)


End file.
